View-source URI scheme

"View source" redirects here. For trying to edit a protected page on Wikipedia, see WP:View source.

The view-source URI scheme is used by some web browsers to construct URIs that result in the browser displaying the source code of a web page or other web resource.[1]

For example, the URI view-source:https://example.com should show the source of the page located at https://example.com.

In the early Internet, the View Source technique helped people learn by example to create their own web pages.[2]

On 25 May 2011, the 'view-source' URI scheme was officially registered with IANA[3] per RFC 4395.

Browser support

Firefox and Internet Explorer both supported the scheme, but support was dropped from Internet Explorer in Windows XP SP2 due to security problems.[4] Firefox also suffered a similar security issue (by combining view-source and JavaScript URIs[5]), but still supported it in Firefox 1.5[6] after being fixed. In 2009, a new discovered bug was fixed in Firefox 3.0.9.[7]

Browser Supported?
Mozilla Firefox supported[8]
SeaMonkey supported
Netscape supported
Internet Explorer 4, 5 and 6 supported
Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8 not supported after Windows XP SP2
Safari 3.2.1 supported
Safari 5, 6 not supported
Opera 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 not supported
Opera 15 and up supported
Google Chrome supported[9]
Web supported
HP webOS via third-party app (Internalz Pro)[10]

References

  1. ^ IETF Draft
  2. ^ Sahlin, Doug; Snell, Claudia (2007-02-03). Building Web Sites All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-12720-9.
  3. ^ Yevstifeyev, M. "'view-source' URI scheme registration template". Retrieved 17 July 2011.
  4. ^ "view-source Protocol". MSDN. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
  5. ^ mikx (2005-05-21). "Mozilla Firefox view-source:javascript url Code Execution Exploit". milw0rm. Archived from the original on 2007-08-14. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
  6. ^ jonathan (2005-11-30). "View Source Bug Fixed and a Tip". blogzilla. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
  7. ^ Fleischer, Gregory (April 21, 2009). "MFSA 2009-17: Same-origin violations when Adobe Flash loaded via view-source scheme". Mozilla. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
  8. ^ "View Source - Firefox Developer Tools". MDN.
  9. ^ "Google Chrome's Full List of Special about: Pages". Lifehacker. 4 September 2008.
  10. ^ Robitaille, Jason (2010-08-28). "Internalz 1.3 brings style with a dark theme and more". PreCentral. Archived from the original on 2011-05-12. Retrieved 2011-02-11.